Big Generator
Senior Member
newdawnfades said:Based on my limited experience of interaction with you here, it seems that your outlook towards music could preclude you from identifying merit in music your personality might not enough patience for.
Terms like 'complaint rock' are personality judgments and suggestion shallow processing. I don't think artists create music to complain. This tells me more about how you are perceiving it. It could be that some music never gets to the parts of you that it should be getting, but may be dismissed too quickly before you had a chance to fully engage yourself in the music.
I am not saying this is your case, but I think too that many people don't filter out the things that aren't relevent to the music. A guy like Prince, he's the type of artist who, because of his eccentricities, can be easily disregarded.
Or take The Monkees. There are alot of members here who I respect that think they were a legit, influential band that deserves respect. But it's hard for me personally to discount all of the TV show antics and fake band beginnings. So that's just my own bias because i'm not filtering out alot of the things that don't necessarily matter to the material that they did put out that was quality.
Let's say there's a good band, but the lead singer is highly annoying. Can I separate my distaste for the lead singer from being able to give the band a decent evaluation for all of it's parts? I hate Geddy Lee's voice, and Rush as a band doesn't exactly give me warm and fuzzy feelings all over. But I know that they are a legitimate band with some respectable material.
Okay - I think I get what you're saying now. But in my defence I do try to filter out the qualities that irritate me in order to make a considered judgement. Take Bob Dylan....he's as annoying to me as Geddy Lee is to you but I don't doubt for a second that Dylan is a major talent. It's true that Prince's eccentricities have always made me suspect he is a phoney - but equally I have heard many, many Prince tracks over the years and it is the music above all else that makes me think he's overrated.
Also - I love all kinds of artists who are routinely dismissed as "cheesy" - and I'm able to filter out the cheese and the 'uncool' image to get to the heart of the song. Take Randy Edelman...Andrew Gold...Billy Joel...Survivor....Neil Diamond....Abba....I'd say the vast majority of people who go to sites like this one are unable to filter out the lack of 'credibility' these artists suffer from.
So I'm not sure that it's true what you say about me making rash judgements. Perhaps my posts are misleading because I tend not to qualify any negative feelings I have toward certain artists. I don't add "...but I respect him"..."in my opinion".."it's subjective after all". There doesn't seem to be any point adding these things - unless one is self-conscious about one's persona on these messageboards. But I reckon we are all equally opinionated and biased here. Don't you?